


Take Me Back To The Ocean

by water_lili_es



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beach, Alternate Universe - High School, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Blood, Character Death, Field Trip, Flashbacks, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Heartbreak, M/M, Sad with a Happy Ending, Satire, Self-Sacrifice, Slow Burn, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:41:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24999286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/water_lili_es/pseuds/water_lili_es
Summary: “Are you waiting for someone?” Chenle asked next when the boy showed no signs of answering his first question.The boy sighed as best he can, his eyes still fixated on the coming and going of the waves. His eyes started to shake with tears that won’t ever be shed. He doesn’t have enough water in his body for tears anymore.Maybe if he tried hard enough, he’d manage to cry tears of blood instead.“No.” his voice was frail and vulnerable, too weak to be above a murmur, too pained to not be a cry for help. “It’s the other way around.”He watched as the wave drew back into the blue sea before he continued speaking. “Someone is waiting for me.”
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 7
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

The morning sun filters through the bus’s windows as the vehicle travels away from the hectic city and towards its outskirts where a peaceful beach can be found. The sun was just about to finish rising, bathing the world in a faint yellow glow that was lighter than when the sun set. Even through the window, the warmth from the sun could be felt replacing the cold air that the midnight brought out hours ago.

The road gradually starts to become bumpy as cement and pavements were replaced with a dirt path. How most of the people aboard the bus were still asleep despite the rocky movements were beyond the ones startled awake.

Unlike his sleep-overcome classmates, Chenle had the side of his forehead pressed against the window he was seated next to, eyes wide open instead of closed shut in slumber. Jisung had graciously given him the window seat in exchange for permission to use Chenle’s shoulder as a pillow during the drive. With Jisung peacefully asleep on his shoulder, Chenle watched the scenery outside of the bus’s window pass and shift along with the steady rising of the golden sun.

His eyes would travel from the outside to the inside, where he’d spend a handful of seconds at a time to see how the orange light of the rising sun made Jisung’s face glow in a soft way that made Chenle want to coo, and he would have if not for the fear of waking his friend up from his nap.

He always loved the beach. He loves how free he feels when his heels dig into the shore as grains of sand hide themselves in the crevices of his toes. He loves the bonfire that usually came after a day between basking in the heat of the sun and bathing in the cold of the ocean.

Chenle can practically taste the salt on the tip of his tongue when the sea came into view. He perked up in his seat, almost waking the sleeping boy on his shoulder as he waited for the bus to slow to a full stop beside the other buses.

Despite his excitement, he woke Jisung gently, knowing full well how irritable Jisung can get if he’s shaken out of his slumber in a way remotely close to rough.

“Jisung, we’re here...” Chenle said with a voice as soothing as it was calming, a complete contrast to the energy bubbling inside of him.

Jisung nodded a beat before opening his eyes. He lifted his head from Chenle’s shoulder as he yawned and rubbed the last vestiges of sleep from his eyes. “How long was I asleep?”

“The whole two hours.” Chenle smiled. Around them, their other classmates were also starting to wake. The bus was a mix of groggy yawns and stifled squeals of excitement as everyone got ready to unboard.

Jisung leaned over Chenle to gaze outside of the window. His drowsy expression gained a spark of life as his eyes took in the sight of the beach; the sea crashing against the sand in waves and the sun positioned in the sky and radiating an overwhelming warmth that called for a dip in the water.

“Let’s go!” Chenle beamed when he was sure that Jisung was fully awake and therefore would not go into a fit if he displayed too much energy around him. He pushed Jisung back to his seat, forcing him to his feet and onto the aisle where the others were beginning to file out of the bus.

Chenle giggled when his sandals hit the sand. He ran over to where his other friends were with Jisung two steps behind him.

“The beach! Ah! I _love_ the beach!” Chenle tittered as Renjun placed a sun hat on top of his head. Renjun had borrowed it from Chenle before they boarded the buses, claiming he needed it to shield his sleeping face from the world and potential blackmail seekers.

“You’re too excited.” Jeno laughed. “We have all day here, you might wear yourself out.”

“Never!” Chenle declared proudly. He didn’t dare turn back and see the way Jisung’s eyes were narrowed at him. He didn’t need to see it to know it was there.

Jaemin chuckled at the excited boy. Shaking his head, he turned away from his friends and breathed in the salt-infested air. Like most of the others, he’d just woken up, but seeing Chenle practically shaking with excitement made any leftover traces of slumber leave his system.

“Let’s go for a dip after breakfast.” he proposed after he exhaled loudly.

“Breakfast?” Jisung asked.

Jeno nodded. “Yeah. Teachers set up some bread and jams and coffee over on the cot over there.”

Jisung and Chenle look past the three boys to see a large cot in the middle of the sand that seemed more occupied than the others. Between the walking students, they can see the tables inside the cot full of bread and varieties of jam, butter, and peanut butter. They can also see a number of large thermoses that they assumed were brewed coffee.

“I already had breakfast.” Chenle turned back to his friends and offered them a cheerful smile. “I think I’ll walk around the beach whilst you guys eat.”

“Are you sure?” Jisung asked. He wasn’t too keen on leaving Chenle wandering off alone. He knew that he could handle himself, but Jisung also knew that Chenle had a knack of running into one or two adventures if he was left alone long enough to.

Chenle nodded. “Yep! I want to make the most of the morning.”

He knew that after everyone has had their fill of bread and coffee and have expelled the final whispers of sleep from their systems, the beach won’t be nearly as serene as it currently was, and Chenle wanted to get the most of all the sides of the beach as he could.

Jisung pulled him out of his musings when he carefully slid Chenle’s overnight bag out of his arm. Inside were two extra sets of clothes and a towel, as well as other things Chenle might need for today. Chenle blinked as Jisung slung the bag over his shoulder, carrying it along with his own bag. “I’ll take it with me. You go and walk around.”

“Don’t wander too far, okay?” Renjun reminded as the four of them started to walk away from Chenle— Jisung and Jaemin to one of the cots where students can deposit their things and Jeno and Renjun to the cot where the teachers had breakfast set.

Chenle headed away from the students, teachers, and buses. He walked between the sand and the sea, his footsteps washing away as soon as waves creeped near enough to where he stepped. His sunhat shielded his eyes from the harsh light from the sky, casting a shadow over half of his face. He walked idly; as errant as he allowed himself to be. The noise of the school trip faded more and more into the background until it was a memory of a whisper that was never there.

The sky was clear of stars now with only a handful of clouds to decorate the baby blue colour that the sky currently was. The sun still hasn’t reached its peak in the sky, but it was already bright enough for Chenle’s eyes to hurt if he tilted his head high enough.

Chenle stopped and let the summer-esque breeze push and pull at the material of his clothes. Like most of the others, he had come in his swim trunks and a shirt, ready to dive into the water as soon as he wanted to. His skin still smelled faintly of two different sunscreens, Jisung putting another layer on him before they boarded the bus despite Chenle’s declaration that he already had sunscreen on.

The sound of the water lulls Chenle’s excitement to sleep, the sound calming him enough to truly appreciate the water and the air around him without the need to jump around. He closes his eyes and takes a deep calming breath. He laughs to himself when he realizes that the wind was not content with only his clothes and wanted to play his hair; his sunhat lifts from where Renjun placed it on his head, the wind carrying it away as it ruffled Chenle’s hair.

Chenle quickly chases after the hat, his fingers curling around the straw material once he was two and a half steps into the ocean. The water pools around his ankles before crawling back into the sea, only to crash against his feet again in an almost steady rhythm.

The water is cold and Chenle hums as he thinks of the possibilty of Jeno and Jaemin lifting Renjun off his feet and throwing him into the ocean. He can almost hear the string of choice words that Renjun will spew the moment his head is out of the water.

He realized that he might have wandered too far. Jeno and Renjun may not be too much of a problem, but Jaemin and Jisung were certainly going to start throwing fits if Chenle was out of their sight for too long, so he makes a move to go back to the others, deciding that a cup of coffee sounded nice.

He turns away from the sea and was about to go make his way back when he notices a large slab of stone less than a dozen feet from where he stood. It was far enough from the sea to stay dry during low tide but near enough to be able to experience the harsh slaps of the high tide. There was nothing special about it at all, but the way the wind blew towards its general direction piqued Chenle’s interest.

Chenle didn’t know what about the washed up boulder intrigued him, but instead of back to where the others were, his feet carried him to where the boulder stood with a tincture of mystery and travesty.

Once he was close enough, Chenle pressed the palm of his hand on the ragged surface of the rock. It was easily as tall as him if he stood to his full height. His fingers grazed the bumps on the rock with furrowed brows and curious eyes. Under where his palm first landed was something like a carving. It was unnatural in the boulder and almost took the shape of something that was between a shark’s fin and a seagull’s wing. It looked carved there instead of another jagged pattern on the rock.

A spate of air takes Chenle’s attention away from the irregular emblem on the boulder. His eyes focus on the lone feather dancing to the song of the seasalt as it passed him. He stepped away from the boulder and reached out to the impossibly white feather, thinking he could stick it to his hat.

He passes the boulder and freezes when he feels a presence seated on the sand. Gripping his sun hat and forgetting about the feather, he turns to face the person seated against the boulder. His face was tilted up to the sky with his eyes closed. His black locks were as dark as the feather he was chasing was white. The boy was shirtless, revealing pale skin that looked almost the same shade as the loose pants he wore. He looked drained of blood and colour, it was concerning. His feet were bare, one of his heels digging into the sand while his other leg was folded so he prop his wrists above one knee.

With another spate of air comes a spate of intrigue within Chenle. The boy looked both uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time. He looked like he was walking between peaceful and distressed, and Chenle wanted to know which of the two he was. He looked like he was balancing himself on two different worlds, and Chenle understood that the boy held as much mystery and travesty as the boulder was.

Maybe the boulder held nothing at all, and the pull Chenle felt was towards the boy and not to the slab of rock on the beach.

He takes small steps closer to the boy, waiting for him to notice his presence and open his eyes. When Chenle reaches him and the boy stays still in the position he was seemingly fixed in, Chenle raises his hand that held his hat and holds it above the boy’s eyes, blocking the sunlight that was now strong enough to seep through closed eyelids.

The boy’s brows furrow at the sudden lack of sunlight. He rolls his head by a fraction of an inch against the rock he was leaning on and slowly— almost painfully— opens his eyes. He doesn’t bother to fully open his eyes, only enough to see in front of him.

His furrowed brows twitch in confusion at the sight of a young boy using his hat to block his face from the light. The light was still harsh behind Chenle, making the boy’s vision blur as he takes in Chenle’s features. For a moment, the boy believes that Chenle looked much different than he actually did, but a pang in his heart told him that his mind was playing tricks on him. It takes half a second for the illusion of spate-grey hair and tanned skin to fade and give way to medium-blonde hair and fair skin.

“What...?” his voice is hoarse from the lack of use. He ought that dehydration may have also played a part, seeing as how his tears have stopped coming hours ago.

Days or weeks, even. He wasn’t sure.

“Hi.” Chenle instantly sensed the strain in the stranger’s voice and decided to thread as lightly as possible. At the sound of Chenle’s voice, the boy’s vision clears, reminding him that the boy in front of him was not the boy he was seeing. He starts to see less of the trick of the light and more of Chenle. “Too much sunlight isn’t good for you. You look like you’ve been here for hours.”

“I feel like I’ve been here for days.” he says as he moves his head again. The crown of his head detaches from the rock as he turns his head to face the sea. He presses the side of his head on the rock instantaneously, too weak to hold it up himself.

Chenle adjusted his hat to better shield the boy’s face. Not just from the sunlight but hopefully from the world as well. He barely contained his gasp when the stranger first opened his eyes. He’s never seen a pair of eyes as bereft of positive emotion as the boy’s eyes did. He’s never heard a voice as rough and hoarse as the voice the boy spoke with. He’s never seen anyone as broken and as tired as the stranger in front of him.

“What are you doing all alone?” Chenle asked when he saw a spark of longingness in the boy’s otherwise lifeless almond eyes. He looked too deep in a state of hiraeth that Chenle could almost feel the pain himself.

“Are you waiting for someone?” Chenle asked next when the boy showed no signs of answering his first question.

The boy sighed as best he can, his eyes still fixated on the coming and going of the waves. His eyes started to shake with tears that won’t ever be shed. He doesn’t have enough water in his body for tears anymore.

Maybe if he tried hard enough, he’d manage to cry tears of blood instead.

“No.” his voice was frail and vulnerable, too weak to be above a murmur, too pained to not be a cry for help. “It’s the other way around.”

He watched as the wave drew back into the blue sea before he continued speaking. “Someone is waiting for me.”

Another gust of wind mussed Chenle’s hair as he crouched in front of the boy. He placed his elbow on top of his knee to keep his arm from losing feeling as he continued to hold his hat above the boy’s eyes.

He looked at the boy with worry and concern, twinged with the slightest of curiosities. Because he didn’t know any better, it looked as if the person the boy was talking about was somewhere in deep in the depths on the sea.

Something clicks in Chenle’s mind. His eyes widen by an unobtrusive fraction of a centimeter as the thought materializes in his mind.

Heartbroken— the boy looked devastatingly heartbroken as he watched the waves come and go. He looked at the sea with the kind of longing that only a home or a loved one can stir inside of a person. He looked both abandoned and like he has abandoned.

His mind conjured up a story before he could stop himself. The boy right here was in love. He lived on that love. A love that seeped deep within his soul and pumped the blood in his veins and sullied the air he inhaled. He loved the kind of love that touched two hearts and two hearts only.

Chenle studied his expression even more. He was stoic save for the cracks in his desperately kept facade where nothing short of broken and regretful and sad and tired spilled through the mask. The boy looked so heartbroken that Chenle felt his own heart start to hurt at the sight.

The story moves on to the end of their love— when he loses his love— his life— to the sea.

Days, he said, that he’s stayed against the boulder, unmoving; but that didn’t answer exactly how long has passed since he lost the person he made his everything. The person he said was waiting for him.

But it doesn’t matter how much time has passed, because a broken heart doesn’t fully heal itself over time. Even if years have passed since his love has gone, this boy will still sit on the sand, looking up at the sun with as much pain as he’s looked at the world ever since he lost his everything.

He wanted to save this boy, Chenle decided. Maybe that was why he was drawn to the boulder, why he was intrigued by the boy seated against it. He needed to save his life before he decided to cut it short.

His life doesn’t have to end the same way his love did.

Chenle combed his eyes over the boy’s figure for another time. A shiver clawed at Chenle’s spine as he took in the boy’s sickly pale skin and chapped lips. He noticed how the boy’s breaths were shallow, as if taking air in was painful. He was drained of everything— blood, water, air, and life. He wouldn’t be surprised if he was merely a shell of the person he once was.

Love really does make you do crazy and stupid things. It makes you throw everything else away in the name of it. And it’s beautiful, in the most heart-rending way possible.

“Why...” Chenle hesitated. He didn’t know if he should be asking, but no one ever taught him the right questions to ask during a situation like this. “Why don’t you go to them?”

The boy— Chenle realized that he’s yet to ask for his name, and that he should have done that first before anything else— lets a surly, wry laugh escape from his dry lips.

“There’s no one to take me to him.” he turned his head away from the ocean and faced Chenle. He’s once again slapped with a harsh spate of the boy’s suffocating emotions. The inhale of air he took burned inside of him in a numb pain that he knows could never compare to the hurt churning the other’s insides. Chenle gulps down the feeling of tears that built up behind his eyes. What exactly happened for someone to be reduced to the cracks of their shattered heart?

“What’s your name?” Chenle asked instead.

The boy blinked, slowly, as if trying to remember the answer to the question he was asked. “Mark.”

“Mark.” Chenle repeated as the boy licked his chapped lips. It was obvious that there was only one name he wanted to repeat to the heavens, and it wasn’t his own.

“Your friend...” Chenle paused when he saw another pang of hurt flash across his eyes. He took a deep breath before continuing. “where is he?”

Mark exhaled a shallow breath. He turned back to the ocean. Chenle’s ears suddenly pick up the waves that he’s been able to tune out until now. He’s suddenly able to see past Mark and the boulder, and he’s back at the beach for a mere moment until he’s once again lost trying to work through the pieces of Mark’s heart. Chenle followed the boy’s gaze and watched the dance of the water.

“He’s over there.” Mark said after a beat of silence. “He’s lost there.”

A love lost at sea. Seeing the boy now, Chenle can’t think of a tragedy that was as wrenching.

“He...” Mark continued, much to Chenle’s surprise; but perhaps Chenle has managed to open a door that led to the story of Mark and his love.

“The ocean was his home. _My_ home, too, after I met him. _He_ was my home. My everything.” Mark’s voice was still fragile but the tiniest bits of strength and energy shone through the vulnerability, masked as a desperation to turn back to the time before everything went wrong. “We met here.”


	2. Chapter 2

Mark stood on top of the boulder. The slab of rock was slippery under the soles of his feet and if he wasn’t careful he might slip and fall into the ocean below.

He doesn’t know why he left the opened window of the boat he was perched on but his companions didn’t seem to mind. The sun, for some reason Mark can’t explain, felt different when he stood on the boulder stranded in the middle of the ocean. If he squinted, he’d be able to see the shore where dozens of friends and families were enjoying the beach. If he strained his ears enough, he’d even hear the yells and laughter that filled the beach.

He doesn’t know how long he stayed there, standing under the heat of the sun. He doesn’t feel the hours pass as he continued to wonder why the sun shone the most on this one spot, as if the sun favoured the boulder. Mark felt a pang of jealousy for the boulder, wondering if he can take its spot as the sun’s favourite.

Mark hears a splash behind his feet, small droplets hitting his ankles. He turns around and sees a boy with deliciously sun-kissed skin and adorably tousled slate-coloured hair. Like Mark, his torso was also bare, and the lower half of his body was submerged under water whilst he had his arms folded above the boulder to support him.

Mark blinked at the boy’s smile. He felt as if the boy was born from the sun’s warm touch and when he arrived, he was convinced that the sun shone brighter than earlier.

No, _he_ was the sun’s favourite.

The boy giggled at Mark’s bewildered expression. He raised an arm and waved his fingers in the air, letting a few drops of sea water trickling down to his elbow. It was the bare minimum, but Mark felt his heart skip a beat at the action.

“Hi.” the boy grinned easily, as if he was a bottle of happiness waiting to pop. He was overwhelming. “Would you care for some company?”

When the boy tilted his head, a few drops of sea water flicked out of his hair and to the surface of the rock.

Mark blinked. The boy’s smile was as radiant as the sky above them. Mark always wanted to reach the sun but no matter how high he flew, he could never reach close enough to graze the rays of the sun. Seeing a ray of sunshine so close made Mark know that the sun was a beautiful thing that deserved every bit of praise that was humanly possible to offer it.

“Can you even leave the water?” Mark asked with a tilt of his own head, purely to mimic the boy’s actions, which the boy found endearing as he let out a small chuckle.

The boy laughed. He lowered his arm and patted the space in front of him before tucking his arm back with the other. “Sit, then. You might slip and fall if you stand too long.”

Mark chuckled as he obliged. He sat in the middle of the boulder; if he moved any closer to the edge then he might fall off. He also didn’t trust the glint in the boy’s eyes and wasn’t completely dismissing the idea of the boy taking him by the ankle and pulling him into the water. He folded his legs to his chest, crossing his knees as he crossed his ankles.

“How do you know I’ve been here long?” Mark asked.

The boy chuckled again. “I saw you a while back. You seemed lonely so... here I am.”

“Were you tired of swimming?” Mark asked as his eyes unconsciously followed a bead of water that slid down the boy’s forehead and down his neck, lower until the drop reached the sea under them.

The boy shrugged cheekily, as if the question was always posed but never answered. “Can you really be tired of something you do all your life?”

Mark hummed in response. He supposed he can say the same. He tilted his head towards the sun, eyes squinting due to the light. He relished in the warmth that hit his skin, humming jovially.

“That’s true.” Mark answered as he lifted his palm to reach for the sky. He used his hand to cover the sun, his eyes blinking at the lack of fire in his vision. He let the light peek through the cracks between his fingers, sighing contentedly.

“You like the sun?” the boy noted as he laid his head on the space between his crossed arms. It was clear that the boy had been watching Mark, for how long, Mark wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. He might not be able to handle knowing how long the boy watched him. Between then, Mark was one that should do the admiring.

Mark nodded. He dropped his hand to the rock he was sitting on and put part of his weight on it so that he angled towards the boy better. “Yeah. I want to reach it someday.”

The boy hummed; no trace of mockery for Mark’s impossible dream. He only accepted.

“What’s your name?” Mark asked.

The boy smiled at him, sweet and small. “Donghyuck. It’s nice to meet you...?”

He trailed off, waiting for Mark to fill in the blank. Mark turned back to the sun, closing his eyes gently. “My name is Mark.”

“Nice to meet you, Mark.” Donghyuck tittered warmly.

Mark glanced at the boy and felt his heart warm at the sight of the grin. He blinked, a small smile of his own forming when his mind associated the warmth Donghyuck made him feel to the warmth that the sun radiated. The warmth that Mark always looked forward to feeling.

They talked until the sun was due to set, but the fire Donghyuck instantaneously set ablaze within Mark was far from put out. The boy ignited a natural warmth around himself despite his love of the cold ocean.

“The sun is gone.” Donghyuck noted that neither of them moved from their positions on the slab of rock. Mark was still seated in the middle of it whilst Donghyuck still hung on the edge. To them, not even an hour has passed since they met, but the darkening sky and the stilling water told them otherwise.

Mark nodded. The orange colour of the sky accented the tan of Donghyuck’s skin in the most breathtaking way possible. He doesn’t fight the reluctance and disappointment in his voice as he spoke. “Yeah. It’s time to say goodbye.”

Donghyuck giggled at the hesitance in Mark’s tone. He chuckled even more when Mark shot him a questioning look. Anything that Mark did solicited for a laugh out of Donghyuck, the boy’s features looking younger than he actually was because of how happy he looked.

“We don’t have to say goodbye.” Donghyuck simpered. “We can say... ‘see you tomorrow’.”

Mark is silent as he watched the way the ocean reflected in Donghyuck’s dark eyes. Mark realized that his eyes were as deep as the depths of the sea stretched out. It confused Mark; the setting sun made Donghyuck’s eyes— all of Donghyuck— glimmer, whilst the serene sea made him sparkle. Mark has never met anyone who can call water and fire to themselves the way the Donghyuck can. He wondered what Donghyuck can do with earth and air.

Donghyuck blinking at him was enough to pull him out of his reverie. Mark smiled and nodded as he stretched his legs in front of him. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow, Donghyuck.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Donghyuck smiled, waving his fingers much like how he first greeted Mark hours ago.

With a final wave, Mark pushed himself off the boulder.

Unsurprisingly, Donghyuck invaded Mark’s thoughts until deep into the night. He craved the warmth that the other radiated. It was a warmth that not even the sun can give him, as far as Mark can remember. It stayed under his skin the way the sun’s heat only touched the surface of his skin. Mark knew better than to deny to himself that he was smitten for an almost-stranger.

An almost-stranger that he was waiting for as he curled his legs to his chest and basked in the summer-like heat of the day as he sat on top of the boulder he found yesterday.

His eyes closed as his ears picked up the song of the wind and envisioned the dance of the water around him. He felt the soft, barely-there sting of the sun as it touched every part of his exposed body. It was comfort, to feel his skin burn under the heat of the sun too far out of reach.

The water next to the boulder shifts and Mark is engulfed with two types of comfort and two different warmths before he even opens his eyes.

A giggle coaxes Mark to open his eyes and turn to the boy settled next to the stranded boulder.

“For a minute there, I feared you won’t come.” Mark jested lightly as he took in the sight of slate hair and tan skin.

Donghyuck laughed, the sound easily sweeter than s’mores on the beach. “And why would I leave you stranded here in the middle of the ocean? You’d be lonely without my company.”

“Yeah,” Mark agreed. “I would be.”

Donghyuck hummed. He kicked under the water in a childish attempt to be even an inch closer to Mark, but unsurprisingly failed. Mark laughed and reached his hand out, but Donghyuck only pouted at the outstretched palm in front of him.

The action stirred something inside of Mark. He felt suffocated all of a sudden, if only for a second and a half, but it was long enough for Mark to decide that if there was a good kind of suffocation, it was what he felt.

“You left a feather here after you left.” Donghyuck said when Mark dropped his hand back to the surface of the boulder, near the edge where Donghyuck hung. The slate-haired boy looked around the boulder to look for the white feather and his pout made a reappearance when he saw no sign of it.

“It’s gone.” he intoned; though he didn’t know what he was expecting. A small gust of air was enough to blow the feather to wherever the wind willed it.

Mark laughed despite another beat of suffocation. “Why would you leave it here then look for it?”

Donghyuck schooled his expression into a sneer that matched the teasing. “How would I know you’d be okay with it? Some don’t like it when their feathers get soaked.”

Mark released another laugh as he lifted himself off his palms and raised his arms next to him. He looked between opening his arms for a hug and gesturing around him. His mouth was parted in slight disbelief as he scoffed out a chuckle. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

Donghyuck stared at Mark under soaked eyelashes. He smiled sincerely at the boy and giggled as he nodded. “You are, aren’t you?” Donghyuck mused, almost in dazedly, as Mark dropped his hands to its previous position. Donghyuck idly tapped the back of Mark’s hand when he saw that he could reach it with little effort.

Barely a minute has passed before Donghyuck established a steady tic of tapping Mark’s knuckles one-by-one until Mark’s hand and the surface around it was soaked with the sea water that trickled down Donghyuck’s own fingers.

Mark let Donghyuck be. He tilted his head towards the direction of the sun and closed his eyes, letting himself feel the combined warmths of the sun and Donghyuck’s presence and touch in a way that only closed eyes can accentuate. He willed his heart to beat to the rhythm of Donghyuck’s tapping, finding it more stable that the nigh rapid pace his heart was moving in since Donghyuck arrived.

Mark only opens his eyes when the crashing of soft waves against the boulder is not the sole thing that reaches his ears. He slowly turns his head to the side, eyes filling with the wonder that was until recently reserved for the sun as he watched Donghyuck tap his knuckles, a gentle tune coming from his closed lips as he hummed to the lull of the waves.

Donghyuck feels eyes on him. He pauses, both from his tapping and his humming as he raises his gaze to Mark’s almond stare. They hold each other’s stare for a handful of seconds, neither of them willing to shatter whatever calmness flowed in the air between them.

Donghyuck feels a breath stay in his throat for a second too long when Mark’s face breaks out into another one of his smiles.

 _Seafoams, he’d be the death of me._ Donghyuck thinks to himself in the middle of forcing himself to breathe.

“Keep going.” Mark said. He could feel the tip of Donghyuck’s middle finger hovering above his pointer finger’s knuckle and he was only half surprised when he felt the urge to take Donghyuck’s hand in his and ask him to sing a proper song.

But Mark couldn’t do that, so he settled with Donghyuck’s tapping and humming instead, which Mark’s heart was more than happy to dance to when Donghyuck did as asked.

Donghyuck’s fingers grazed Mark’s knuckles to the beat of his humming as Mark’s gaze shifted from the sun in the sky to the boy in the sea. They’d share a small giggle whenever they’d catch each other staring, share a short story every few minutes, or comment about the fishes that swam past them or the birds that flew above them.

Pretty soon, Mark’s eyes weren’t the only ones that reflected stars. The sky changed from its soft blue to its ink blue as the moon shone above them. Donghyuck had stopped his humming and the two boys were exchanging the last of their idle conversation until they had to part ways.

When they said goodbye, Donghyuck let go of Mark’s hand. The two of them wondered when that happened; who curled his finger’s between who’s, and how long had their hands held each other, but neither could deny the bubbling drops of infatuation that rained down on them as Donghyuck dived back into the water and Mark jumped off the boulder.

The water rippled around the edge of the boulder. Curious, Mark inches close to the edge, leaning forward to peer at the whorls in the water.

Mark’s eyes widen when he recognizes the figure underwater. Before he can scramble back to the other side of the small boulder, Donghyuck’s body pops out from the ocean and sprays Mark with the water he collected in his mouth. Mark gasps at the shower, almost slipping back but catching himself before he falls into the sea.

Donghyuck’s childish giggles infiltrate Mark’s ears as he wipes the sea water from his face, When he was dry enough to open his eyes, he facetiously scowls at Donghyuck, though the scowl soon turns into the smallest of pouts when he sees that the boy could barely open his eyes from too much laughing.

Mark thoughtfully shakes his head as he sits in the middle of the boulder with his legs tucked under him. With his chin on top of his closed fist and his elbow pressed on his knee, he waitesfor Donghyuck to get over his laughing fit. He didn’t stop the smile slowly forming on his lips the longer he was graced with the presence of a giggling, shining Donghyuck an arm’s length in front of him.

“I’m sorry.” Donghyuck tittered as he caught his breath. “I couldn’t help myself. I’m sorry.”

Mark’s brow twitched slightly at the double apologies. Donghyuck’s laughs were only beginning to subside, yet Mark could tell that Donghyuck was more worried that he may have upset Mark than he let on. Mark tilted his head at Donghyuck, amused that he thought he could ever do anything to upset Mark, especially when he was just being his irresistibly bubbly self.

No. Never.

Mark chortled when Donghyuck had calmed down enough to fully open his eyes. Mark shook his head and diverted his eyes from Donghyuck to the water behind him. How Donghyuck thought he’d be upset was beyond him; he was graced with minutes of a laughing Donghyuck, how can that upset him? He’d willingly cry sea water if it merited another giggle that spoke the secrets of the ocean.

Donghyuck misunderstood Mark’s lack of an answer, though, and his features quickly morphed into a worried frown that Mark was too focused avoiding Donghyuck’s gaze to see. Donghyuck reached out and grasped Mark’s arm, prodding at it until it fell from where his elbow was propped on his knee. The lack of support sent Mark’s upper body forward but he quickly caught himself when he saw the uncharacteristic frown on Donghyuck.

“I’m sorry.” the surprisingly worried tone Donghyuck used caught Mark off-guard. Donghyuck gripped Mark’s forearm tighter, pulling the boy inches closer.

Mark’s concern wavered back to his usual smile as he pulled his arm away from Donghyuck’s hold. A spate of hurt flashed through his eyes when Mark did that, but it doesn’t last long because Mark laughs his boyish chuckle and laces his fingers between Donghyuck’s. Mark straightens from his leaning figure and smiles. “It’s fine, don’t worry. If it makes you smile, then I’m okay with it.”

Donghyuck inhales silently as a growingly familiar feeling fills his chest. He lets out an airy laugh and holds up their joint hands, tilting it from side-to-side for good measure.

“This is enough to make me smile.”

Mark studied Donghyuck’s expression, engraving the sight in front of him to memory before he nods.

“Tell me,” Donghyuck says one day as his and Mark’s eyes followed a flock of seagulls that were flying above them. “if you could be something else... would you?”

Mark looked away from the blue afternoon sky and looked at the boy at the side of the boulder he was sat on. Mark pressed his lips together in thought, his thumb mindlessly grazing Donghyuck’s hand, which he held between them.

“Would we know each other?” Mark asked in return after a minute of silence. “If I was anyone else.”

Donghyuck hummed in thought. He could feel Mark’s touch on his hand and wondered how he managed to survive a day without the boy before.

“I don’t know.” Donghyuck answered truthfully. Whether it was an answer to Mark’s question or to his own, he wasn’t sure. He figured that multiple questions can have the same answer.

Mark accepted the answer and once again pressed his lips together. Donghyuck watched in silence, stealing as many moments as time would allow him to look over Mark’s every feature. During the first weeks since he’d met Mark, he was confused at how he’d be able to distinguish anyone else that was like Mark from each other; but that was before he concluded that there was ‘someone like Mark’, and then there was ‘Mark’. Simple as that.

“I won’t.” Mark answered finally and Donghyuck almost forgot what they were talking about if not for a flock of seagulls flying over their heads. They all had clean white feathers save for the tips of their wings and tails, ranging from ash gray to jet black.

After a silent second, Mark wrinkles his nose and shakes his head in a way that was unmistakably Mark. “If there was even the _slightest_ chance that we won’t know each other, then I don’t want a new life.”

Donghyuck’s heart skipped a beat at the foreignly sincere tone that Mark’s voice held. He subconsciously tightened his hold on Mark’s hand. Mark looks down when he feels the added pressure.

He chuckles as he places his free hand on top of Donghyuck’s, completely enclosing Donghyuck’s hand in both of his. Donghyuck can only watch in flustered admiration as Mark raises their hands and places a soft, tender kiss on the back of Donghyuck’s hand.

Mark’s lips linger on Donghyuck’s skin, light and easy, the touch as soft as wind. Donghyuck bites his lips to stop the strangled sound that threatens to leave his lips. It was a good kind of strangled, the skip in his heart told him as Mark lifted his gaze from their hands to Donghyuck’s eyes, finally bringing their hands away from his lips.

“What about you?” Mark asks as if he wasn’t responsible for Donghyuck’s currently incessantly skipping heartbeat.

At the question, Donghyuck laughs, and the sound is more than enough for Mark to know that Donghyuck would have answered similarly.

Weeks passed and unspoken feelings bubbled more and more within both boys. They’d spend afternoons until midnights together on the stranded rock in the middle of the sea, only being apart during the mornings, when Mark and Donghyuck had to live in a world where the other didn’t exist— where Mark was up in the clouds and Donghyuck was between waves.

The boulder was where air met water, where the blue sky was lost in the blue sea and vice versa.

Mark once again had his hand raised above his eyes, letting the sunlight peek through his parted fingers. He was propped backwards by his other hand, which Donghyuck was burying under ribbons of seaweed that he’d leave Mark minutes at a time to collect underwater. The seaweed was uncomfortable above his hand but he didn’t dare tear Donghyuck away from his beguiling antics; especially not when Donghyuck has already started to sing under his breath, thankfully loud enough that Mark can hear it despite the white noise of the beach.

His arm started to become sore, so Mark dropped it and placed his hand down on the boulder so his arms were parallel behind him. He closed his eyes and let himself hearken Donghyuck’s singing.

Getting lost in Donghyuck’s voice— in Donghyuck, more accurately— is not a difficult task for Mark. In fact, he found that trying to navigate his way back was a tricky chore that Mark has given up on accomplishing weeks before. Even if by some miracle. he’d be able to break free from Donghyuck’s spell, it’s not like he’d want to.

He smiles to himself as a silly thought pops up in his mind, much like how Donghyuck appeared the first time they met. He barely manages to suppress a laugh when Donghyuck stops singing from next to him.

“What’s with that look?” Donghyuck asked with a curious smile. Mark opened his eyes and looked at Donghyuck. Something about the way his slate hair fell over his eyes was endearing to Mark; too endearing that he may start to entertain the silly thought as a possibility.

Mark studied Donghyuck’s eyes and chuckled. He lifted his free hand and gestured for Donghyuck to move closer. When he did, Mark gently brushed Donghyuck’s hair out of his eyes, staring rapturously into Donghyuck’s eyes. His eyes were dark and tempting Mark to dive behind his sclera, never to break away.

He let his knuckles brush the side of Donghyuck’s head, from his temple all the way to the apple of his cheek. He sees the same flustered admiration in Donghyuck’s eyes, and his heart swells at the sight. Mark tittered again as he retracted his hand from Donghyuck’s face.

“Are you sure you’re not a sea nymph?” the question was airy, ranging in the middle of serious and joking perfectly. Donghyuck is stunned at the question. He lets out a disbelieving breath and bites his lower lip to stifle a laugh.

“What?” Donghyuck grinned. Mark met his eyes for a moment before he sees the way Mark’s eyes comb over his figure again. Mark took in the sight of Donghyuck, from the way that the drops of water gleamed on his skin to the way Donghyuck’s smile radiated comfortable warmth in a way that promised his touch would creep under Mark’s skin and linger there in the most jovial way possible.

Mark was sure that Donghyuck held magic in him, because there was no way that one boy could hold so much power over him with just a look. Just the _thought_ of Donghyuck sent Mark into an uncontainable fit of giggles that made him feel like the sun hugged him as if he was its child. There was no way that Donghyuck wasn’t magic.

“You’re not secretly a sea nymph, are you?” Mark asked again. Donghyuck leaned away from Mark, back to his previous position, and Mark looks at him with subtle skepticism.

“What made you think that?” Donghyuck laughed, a faint blush tainting his cheeks. He folded his arms on top of the boulder and cocked his head to the side in question, smiling softly at a tilted Mark. He couldn’t think of why Mark saw him as something more than he was.

Mark shrugged and fixed his gaze on the pile of seaweed that hid his left hand. He let another laugh fill Donghyuck’s ears as the latter rested his cheek on folded arms. “I don’t know. I won’t be surprised if you’re holding me here every day with your sparkling eyes and amazing voice and plan to hold me captive until the end of time.”

“Now, would that be so bad?” Donghyuck asked teasingly. Mark turned to him with narrowed eyes that the former laughed at; the idea of keeping Mark with him for all of eternity was already appealing, but even more so when the words came from the other’s own, said in his voice, with that charming smile that told Donghyuck that Mark wouldn’t mind it if that were the case.

The vision was hazy, like some sort of impossibility that was barely inches from their grasps. He could see the both of them on top of the boulder, drowning out the world instead of being inundated by the reality of everything else. Donghyuck was happy. Mark was happy. They were happy.

If they reached out enough, they could take hold of such a crazy impossibility.

Something clicks in Donghyuck’s mind, and he lifts his cheek from where it’s pressed on his arm to look at Mark with a shy smile. “You think my eyes sparkle?”

Mark blinks at Donghyuck, wondering if that was the only thing Donghyuck got from what he said. Donghyuck laughs at the reaction, reveling in the giddy feeling in his chest as he places his chin on his arm, not wanting to look away from Mark.

Mark holds Donghyuck’s gaze, his almond eyes something akin to molten affection and adoration that answered Donghyuck’s question. Mark thought that Donghyuck’s eyes were sparkly, and Mark loved it when they did.

The air turns back to the silent tension that Donghyuck managed to cut through for a handful of seconds.

Mark’s almond eyes looked as if they held lava inside of them, the magma flowing with the heat of the emotion that Mark held for Donghyuck. Donghyuck wondered how many hours Mark had stared straight at the sun for him to be able to look at him with such intensity.

Mark hummed thoughtfully, seemingly of similar thoughts to Donghyuck. The idea made Donghyuck’s mind reel.

He wasn’t ignorant. He knew his feelings weren’t completely one-sided. The only problem was that he wasn’t sure how much of the feelings were mutual. For all he knew, Mark thought of him as a pet or something like that.

But no one would look at a pet the way Mark looked at Donghyuck. The way Mark spoke to and touched Donghyuck told him that his feelings weren’t unrequited and that he shouldn’t be afraid of the vicious throes in his heart whenever Mark laughed or smiled or sat there in front of him looking the way he did. Looking like Donghyuck’s whole world.

“I wouldn’t mind it much.” Mark mused, going back to the first question Donghyuck asked. He turned to Donghyuck as they shared a meaningful smile. Donghyuck felt his insides heat up, an obvious contrast to the ice-cold water he swam in all day. He pressed his lips together in an attempt to physically shut down his mental rambling.

Mark chuckled as he noticed Donghyuck’s internal conflict. He could feel the intensity of his gaze but made no move to look away. He would look at Donghyuck with as much emotion as time would allow him to.

That’s all they had: borrowed time. Stolen hours. It was only a matter of time before fate came crashing down on them. They both knew that, but they were both better at ignoring it than acknowledging it.

It wouldn’t be so bad if Donghyuck was luring Mark to him every day with his song. Even without his sparkling eyes and amazing voice, Mark was sure that he’d still find himself being reeled to Donghyuck. Mark has never felt as complete as he had ever since he met Donghyuck, and he wasn’t going to throw it away for anything.

Donghyuck said something as he reached out and brushed his fingers gently through Mark’s arm, up to his elbow then back down to his wrist in slanted lines. His words were so soft that the wind carried the syllables away before Mark could get a hold of them.

“What?” Mark asked as Donghyuck’s hand touched the pile of seaweed before trailing back up his skin. Mark was tempted to reach over and catch Donghyuck’s wrist in his hand but stopped himself before he could.

Donghyuck blinked, slowly pursing his lips to bite on them. He was unsure if he intended for Mark to hear, but Mark heard something and he was asking Donghyuck to repeat it because he didn’t quite catch it.

And of course, repeating things are twice as embarrassing, especially since Mark’s undivided attention was on him now, eager to hear what Donghyuck had to say.

Mark was blocking the sun, somehow looking brighter than the golden ball in the sky. Donghyuck noted how heavenly Mark looked, how ethereal he always looked, like he came straight for the sky instead of simply reaching for it.

Donghyuck blinked again, feeling small under Mark’s stare. He wondered if sea nymphs were immune to such eyes, and if they were, Donghyuck was very much regretting not being born as a sea nymph and in extension, not being born with the innate immunity to dark almond eyes.

He looked away from Mark and focused on running his hand up and down Mark’s arm. He felt his lip stick out a little as he relented. He could feel the tips of his ears burn at the words that fell from his mouth for a second time.

“If you think I’m a sea nymph, then it won’t be a shocker for me to think of you as an angel.” Donghyuck’s voice was still barely loud enough to properly hear, but Mark’s senses were heightened when it came to sun-kissed and slate-haired boys named Donghyuck, so his heart went into a frenzy after Donghyuck spoke.

Mark blinked, something that would have earned a chuckle from Donghyuck if he wasn’t refusing to meet Mark’s eye.

“An angel?” Mark repeated with a small, touched smile curving his lips.

Donghyuck, suddenly drowned with a sense of bashfulness, bit his bottom lip as he nodded. He pinched across Mark’s arm, enough to sting but not enough to hurt.

“I mean, yeah.” despite the bashfulness, he still managed to speak with a confidence that can only be drawn when someone talked about something they believed whole-heartedly. There was a hint of jest in Donghyuck’s tone, but it was the kind that told Mark that Donghyuck was proud of himself for believing such an absurdity.

He stole a glance at Mark, peeking at him through the water drops that sat atop his lashes. Mark’s expression was unreadable for the first time since they met months ago, and Donghyuck feared that he may have said the wrong thing, so he scrambled for a sliver of redemption.

“I mean, you know,” he blustered. “you’re always leaving feathers here. You’re like some sort of guardian angel or whatever.”

Mark laughed at Donghyuck, who was on the verge of a frenetic meltdown. Donghyuck bit his lips shut as he watched Mark laugh. The boy took a thin strip of seaweed from his hand and placed it on top of Donghyuck’s head in a circular motion. “You’re cute, you know that?”

Donghyuck doesn’t answer. He lets Mark transfer the seaweed from his hand, feeling the weight gradually grow as the seconds passed. Mark continued to speak when it was evident that Donghyuck had no plans to.

He fondly shakes his head whilst adding another piece of seaweed to the pile on Donghyuck’s head. “You really have me under your spell, Donghyuck. Just can’t stay away from you no matter what.”

“You’re like the sun.” Mark stopped adding seaweed to Donghyuck’s head, lifting his hand to free it from the seaweed he failed to transfer. He focused on Donghyuck, his playful smile turning more and more enamored as he took in the sight of Donghyuck subtly trying to balance the pile of seaweed on his head without looking like he was.

“I’ve always dreamed of reaching the sun.” Mark breathed thoughtfully. He reached out to Donghyuck, waiting for him to place his hand on top of Mark’s before letting out another smile. Donghyuck feels a frisson run down his spine when a layer of seaweed falls from the top of his head and back to the water when he moves.

Mark slips his fingers between Donghyuck’s as his eyes shift from their hands and Donghyuck as if debating which of the two was more beholding of a sight. He lifts their hands, turning Donghyuck’s attention to their fingers, and Mark smiles. Donghyuck looking at their clasped hands is surely the most beholding of the three.

Donghyuck turned back to Mark when he spoke. He felt his heart enter into a vegetative state but paid no mind to it because a heart attack was the only reaction Donghyuck seemed fit for Mark’s words.

“I’m holding the sun right now, so I must really be in heaven.”

Mark always dreamed of reaching the sun; and until recently, he was sure that the sun he wanted to touch was the one that hung in the sky. Now, he was beginning to think that the only sun worth reaching for had slate hair that would never look presentable and damp eyelashes that almost always refused to flutter the way the wind blew.

Donghyuck breathed out a tentative sigh as he turned his head to the sky. As usual, he was using one of his arms to cushion his head, the other one wrapped around Mark’s own in a long-before established greeting between them. Mark was rubbing circles over Donghyuck’s knuckles idly, eliciting occasional hums of approval from Donghyuck whenever he put just the right pressure on just the right spot.

The two were enveloped in a silence that was not unwelcomed. Donghyuck’s presence was more than enough for cacophonies of electricity to course through Mark’s entire being. Whenever Donghyuck looked at him the way he did, Mark felt as if he had been shot midflight. Mark knew, that for Donghyuck, he’d take a bullet to the heart.

“Don’t you ever just want to... run away?” when Donghyuck started to share another one of his curious musings, Mark knew that Donghyuck was more than the sun to him. Donghyuck was the sun, the moon, and the stars. He’s the wind beneath his wings and the very breath that gives Mark life.

Mark turned his eyes away from the sun and looked to his sun— his world. He didn’t fight the miniscule smile on his face even as Donghyuck moved to catch his stare, patiently waiting for Mark to answer his question.

And, seafoams, was Mark in love with the way Donghyuck’s brows quirked an inch upwards in waiting.

Mark exhaled, amused by his own thoughts. He lifted the hand enveloped in both of his, closing his eyes as he pressed a soft kiss on each of Donghyuck’s knuckles. He heard the other take a sharp breath, and Mark opened his eyes to smile lovingly at him.

“One day, let’s run away together.” he proposed as he took Donghyuck’s other hand and placed kisses on the knuckles there.

“Where would we go?” Donghyuck asked, almost solemnly. It was a childish fantasy; an impossible miracle he would swim the oceans for it to become a reality. And by the smile on Mark’s face, he knew that Mark would fly to the ends of the sky to reach the exact same possibility.

“Somewhere no one would ever find us.”

Donghyuck tore his eyes away from Mark and looked up at the sky. Mark’s eyes moved from Donghyuck and to the deep waters over his shoulder.

Mark held Donghyuck’s hand tighter at the realization that washed over both of them.

They were where the sea met the clouds, and both could only hope that there was no one to find them.

The wind hummed in their ears as a feather fell from the sky and onto the surface of the water in front of them. Mark watched as the seagull’s feather stayed afloat, drifting sideways idly.

Mark chuckled. “I wonder if there are feathers on the bottom of the ocean.”

Donghyuck shrugged, effortlessly falling into Mark’s train of thought. “I don’t think so. Feathers are too light to do anything but float.”

Mark hummed in acceptance of the answer. He couldn’t see a pile of feathers under the sea, carried by the current the same way the air would have. It was a curious picture, and he was curious if it was possible.

He seemed to wonder if a lot of things were possible. Ever since he met Donghyuck.

“Must be nice to fly.” Donghyuck wondered as his eyes bore into Mark the same way it always did. “Wings are cool.”

Mark tilted his head back with a small laugh. “They’re okay.”

“I wish I had wings.” Donghyuck exhaled. Mark turned to look at Donghyuck again and the latter drew in a steady breath at the sight of almond eyes looking at him with more emotion than he could perceive.

He didn’t have wings, but something about the way Mark looked at him made him think he could fly; something about the way Mark held his hand made him live over the clouds. Everything about Mark made his heart soar.

He saw Mark’s lips move but was too deep in his own thoughts to catch whatever cheeky quip Mark had come up with. He blinked as the sounds of the waves and the breeze was suddenly too loud for him to automatically tune out. It felt like they were taunting him, forcing him to accept the fact that whatever bubble he and Mark had hidden away to was bound to pop sooner or later.

“Mark.” Donghyuck said. He looked at Mark with as much intensity as he could muster, hoping it was at least half of the emotion Mark looked at him with.

He needed to say it. Every day that he didn’t felt like another day closer to when he’d turn to seafoam and dissolve into the sea. He needed to tell Mark or else he’d go crazy hopelessly pining for someone who hid behind the clouds.

He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all, but a dozen questions killed the chuckle halfway.

A dozen questions that only revolved around Mark, who he wanted to be with until the end of time, but why?

Why does he know that he would go out of his way for Mark? Why was he willing to break every rule, spoken or unspoken, for Mark? What made him so adamant on ignoring every social construct known to the sea and sky, because social constructs be damned if it keeps him away from Mark. What made Mark so special that Donghyuck would give up the ocean to be with him? How is Mark so easily able to stir Donghyuck’s mind, body, and heart even at the mere thought of him? Why did he love Mark?

He loves Mark. Simple as that. It was the answer to every single question Donghyuck had. It was the answer to so much more.

Mark saw the frustrated desperation in Donghyuck’s eyes. He slowly sat up, taking Donghyuck’s free hand so he could cradle both of his palms on his lap.

“What is it?” the worried crease on Mark’s brow called a small smile to come out from Donghyuck. He wasn’t worried, not as much as he should be. He knew that he and Mark would travel to the ends of the world together.

“You know I love you, right?”

Mark’s lips tug upwards in a soft smile, his eyes speaking more than his words can ever.

“I know. And I love you, too.”

“I know.”

They were going to the ends of the earth together.

The city beyond the beach is lit with more lights that it usually is. There must be a festival running across the city streets, but Mark and Donghyuck are more focused on admiring the bright lights and the even brighter fireworks that littered the otherwise undisturbed night sky.

“They’re beautiful.” Donghyuck whispers as red and blue reflects on his face.

Mark looks away from the sky and to Donghyuck, tugging his hand so that the boy would lean closer. Mark smiled when he did, lifting his free hand for his fingers to work through the tangles in Donghyuck’s mussed hair.

“You’re a better view.” Mark comments when Donghyuck’s eyes go from the fireworks to him.

Donghyuck presses his lips together, something Mark has deduced to be Donghyuck’s flustered habit. He laughs and taps Donghyuck’s nose affectionately before turning back to the fireworks.

They could almost feel the vibrations of the fireworks on the boulder, but even then, nothing comes close to the incessant beating of their hearts, working its way to the tips of their fingers.

Mark closes his eyes, letting himself get lost in the sound of Donghyuck’s gentle humming.

At this moment, the world was for them.

Mark opened his eyes, desperately struggling against the bonds on his wrists. He kept his mouth clamped shut, begging the heavens that he can hold his breath longer than he thought. But he knew it was wishful thinking. He lived in the wind. He needed air. He won’t survive under water.

It happened so fast— _too_ fast. One second, he was seated on the boulder, waiting for Donghyuck to come with his bright eyes and equally bright smile. The next second, there was a net over him, and he was being hauled aboard a boat. He cried out when the blade punctured his stomache; he was sure his scream reached the beach if people listened enough, eyes closed in pain even as he was tied up and thrown off board.

“Seagulls make great bait.”

“The blood draws sharks in fast.”

The words reach his ears before he’s thrown in the water, and the reality of the situation sends him out of his consternation and into a fit of panic. Mark thrashed even more once he registered how the water around him was splashed the vibrant red that he was sure was his blood.

He was growing weaker by the second. There was only so much blood he could lose, only so much water he can gulp down before he gave in.

But Donghyuck couldn’t find him like this.

There were going to hurt Donghyuck.

The ties were too tight for Mark, but he wasn’t going to let himself go without a fight. He had to get out before Donghyuck came. He had to save Donghyuck.

“Mark!”

Donghyuck’s heart dropped in consternation at the sight in front of him. Mark, bloodied and struggling against the painful ties on his wrists, kicking in the water in desperation. Red swam all over Mark’s thrashing figure and Donghyuck almost passed out at the overwhelming smell of blood.

“No!”

Donghyuck swam to Mark, fighting the churning of his stomache as the smell of blood grew stronger with each stride. Blood had never smelled so devastatingly hopeless.

Mark’s eyes widened at the sight of the slate-haired boy. Mark allowed himself to process how Donghyuck looked nothing short of magnificent underwater before sharp spates of dread fed into his entire being. His heart pounded uncontrollably as felt new tears prick under his eyes. Mark prayed that Donghyuck wasn’t in front of him, that his mind was playing tricks on him as a result of his weakened state.

Mark furiously shook his head as Donghyuck approached.

Donghyuck had to _leave_. He had to _go_. They were going to _hurt_ Donghyuck.

“Donghyuck, no!” Mark rasped, getting a handful of ocean in his mouth in the process.

Mark could barely hear anything over the frenetic beating on his chest and Mark knew that Donghyuck was battling his own twisted bundle of nerves as he looked at the sight in front of him.

Mark wasn’t supposed to be here.

He can’t breathe under water.

He’ll lose too much blood.

“W-We’ll get you out of here, okay?” Donghyuck’s voice wasn’t as stable as he hoped, but he focused on the ropes that bounded Mark’s wrists. He had to free Mark. He was injured and couldn’t breathe under water. He had to save Mark, fast.

Donghyuck can hear something above the water, and the sound made his heart tremble as hefty tears left his eyes and disappeared into the water around him instead of rolling down his cheeks.

He had to move fast. Mark was in danger.

They put his love’s life on the line because they wanted _him_.

He tried his hardest to push the sick turning of his insides away. The scent of blood flowed around him and Donghyuck could feel his lungs struggle to dispel the scent from his system. His heart was ringing in his ears in beats that made Donghyuck all the more desperate to push away the helplessness of the situation. He can’t afford to focus on anything but saving Mark.

Mark, whose blood sullied the water around them.

“Donghyuck, leave.” Mark desperately choked out bubbled words as he stayed limp. He was too weak to squirm now, only focused on getting Donghyuck as far away as possible.His lungs were screaming for air and his stomache crying tears of blood.

Donghyuck loosened a knot and looked up at Mark. They were swimming in Mark’s blood but Donghyuck can still see the tears that spilled from Mark’s forlorn eyes and fused in the red sea water.

“You have to go.” Mark was pleading. This was the first time he’s ever seen Mark cry, and he never thought he’d regret only having good days with Mark. He never thought he’d resent the fact that he’s never once argued with Mark, because he _knew_ that this was the last time he’d ever see Mark cry.

“Donghyuck.” Mark sobbed. He was using the last of his air to talk to Donghyuck, to beg Donghyuck to leave, and he was swallowing more and more water with every broken syllable he cried.

He might as well fight with Mark now, with the little time they have left.

Donghyuck shook his head as he loosened another knot. His voice was cracked, emitting a broken sob. “I’m not leaving.”

Donghyuck loosened another knot, and that was when Mark broke into another fit of strangled cries.

They’ve noticed Donghyuck.

“Donghyuck!” he choked on the mix of blood and seawater as a fishing spear cut through the surface of the water and punctured Donghyuck’s shoulder. Donghyuck’s face contorted in pain and he took in a harsh breath. Donghyuck’s blood swam with Mark’s as Donghyuck bit down a pained yell.

Mark bit back a sob as the water stained not only with his blood but now also Donghyuck’s. It was as beautiful as a travesty can get.

“Mark, get out of here.” Donghyuck cried as he struggled against the blade, loosening the last knot on Mark’s wrists.

 _I’m not leaving_. Mark wanted to repeat Donghyuck’s words as he reached out to him but he was too close to drowning. He held on to Donghyuck’s hands, praying for a miracle that the ropes would tie their hands together for eternity.

Their hands slipped as the spear tugged Donghyuck away.

It was wishful thinking.

Mark made a move to grab on to Donghyuck tighter, but he was too weak and too slow to hold on long enough. But Donghyuck wasn’t. In the last throes of his strength, he held on to Mark as he was lifted out of the water, lacing their fingers in a painful farewell.

“I love you.” Donghyuck whispered as the two of them were raised from the bloody water.

“I love you, too.” Mark managed to answer before Donghyuck let go of him. Mark was dropped onto the boulder, taking breaths as deep as the stab wound on his abdomen would let him before breaking out into wrenching sobs.

They had Donghyuck. They were going to hurt Donghyuck.

“Donghyuck!” Mark tried to push himself off the boulder, but he was too weak to do anything.

Another strangled cry left Mark as Donghyuck’s pained yell pierced the salty wind.

The fishermen cut off the closest thing Donghyuck had to wings.


	3. Chapter 3

“They threw him back to the ocean after that. And I... don’t know how I got here.” Mark murmured as he spoke. “I don’t want to be here. I want to be where he is.”

Quiet tears trailed down Chenle’s cheeks as he listened to Mark’s story. He hadn’t moved at all, afraid to pull Mark out of his reverie if he spoke.

Mark moved, finally turning his eyes away from the ocean and to the sky, Chenle’s hat still blocking the sun and shading Mark’s face from the heat.

“He was my sun.” Mark offered a tired smile as he looked at Chenle for the first time since he started to tell him the story. Chenle took in the heartbroken fragments of his irises, his sclera shining in the ghost of the tears he’d shed. “My everything.”

“It’s horrible, what happened to him. To you.” Chenle whispered. He doesn’t know what to say, finding himself even more speechless than he was when he first found Mark. He doesn’t want to feed Mark with verbiage when it’s clear that nothing will make him feel even a modicum lighter.

“It’s how the world works.” Mark answered. The lack of life in his voice broke Chenle’s heart more. “We weren’t an exception.”

It was as beautiful as a travesty can get.

“Mark.” Chenle said as he tried to muster a comforting smile. “Your love. It was something special. It was something earth and fire can never compare to.”

He still didn’t know how to save Mark. All he wanted was to bring Donghyuck to Mark, but there was no way he can find a fin-less shark on the bottom of the ocean.

“Will you...” Mark spoke carefully, something between afraid of asking and afraid of rejection. But the hopelessness overpowered his fear, and Mark continued his sentence. He spoke with as much emotion as he can. The emotion was desperation, one of the only emotions Mark had left to hold on to.

“Will you take me to him?” Mark asked as he lowered his lifted knee and let his hands fall on the sand next to him. Chenle could barely stifle his shock at the sight of blood that covered Mark’s side. Until now, the wound was hidden behind Mark’s folded leg.

Mark didn’t want Donghyuck to come to him. Mark wanted to go to Donghyuck.

“Please. Will you take me back to the ocean?”

Chenle looked at the boy he was holding his sun hat above. Full tears pricked at the corners of Chenle’s eyes as he understood all of the tragic emotions that were freely coursing through Mark’s core.

No, Chenle could never understand, no matter how much he wanted to. He can never understand the way Mark’s sun had sparkling eyes and an enchanting voice. He can never understand the way Mark cried and begged Donghyuck to leave him only for Donghyuck to sacrifice his own life to save Mark’s.

Chenle studied his expression. He wasn’t as stoic as earlier, making room for the broken and regretful and sad and tired to spill through his barely kept facade. Beyond those cracks, he could also see a miniscule, pearlescent sheen in Mark’s eyes, reflecting the smallest of hopes and trusts in Chenle that he’d bring Mark to Donghyuck. It was barely there, but Chenle could see it.

“Chenle?”

Another spate of air ruffles Chenle’s hair and he blinks when sand gets into his eyes.

He freezes as he rubs at his closed eyes. Mark had never asked for his name.

“Chenle, thank God.” the voice continued as the person sidled the boulder and crouched next to Chenle. “I thought I told you not to wander off too far?”

Chenle met Renjun’s eyes, suddenly brought back to his own life— a school trip to the beach. It suddenly sounded unreal to Chenle now that he found something far more valuable than stray seashells.

“Jisung, he’s over here!” Renjun yelled over his shoulder as he studied Chenle’s expression. When he rubbed his eyes free of sand, he also wiped his tears away, but stains were still evident if someone was close enough to him.

Chenle has no time to move or react as Jisung pops out from the side of the boulder, a relieved sigh escaping his lips as he leans against the rock at the sight of Chenle. He saw red outline Chenle’s eyes but didn’t question the boy, simply relieved that Chenle was safe and sound.

“Jesus, Chenle, we were looking everywhere for you.” Jisung said as the last traces of worry left his features.

“I’m sorry.” Chenle answered. He felt bad that his friends have gone out to look for him.

Jisung noticed Chenle’s position. He had an elbow propped on his knee and was holding his sunhat over something. He glanced at Renjun who was still crouched next to Chenle before he peeked under Chenle’s hat, brows furrowing in confusion at what Chenle was protecting from the morning sun.

He takes note of the subtle touch of fondness that flows to the tips of his fingers as he links Chenle’s red-rimmed eyes to the creature he was protectively crouched over. It was just like Chenle to let his emotions take a hold of him like this.

“What are you doing with a dead seagull?”

At the boy’s question, Chenle turned away from Jisung. He moved his sunhat for the first time since he’s met Mark, almost dropping it completely as the sight in front of him.

Under his sunhat wasn’t a pale boy with dark hair and broken features. On the side of the boulder was a dead seagull, white feathers strained with red on the same spot Mark’s wound was. The tips of the bird’s wings and tail were ink black, the same colour as Mark’s hair.

Chenle exhaled. He can almost see almond eyes longing to go back to the ocean, begging to be reunited with the shark that died for him.

“His name is Mark.” Chenle told Jisung and Renjun as he let go of his hat.

He wanted to save Mark, and the only way to do that is to take him back to the ocean.

“Are you sure about this?” Jeno asked from where he was seated on the slightly large boat. Chenle was seated across him with Jisung’s towel on his lap, serving as a cushion for Mark. One of Chenle’s hands was raised up to his chest, shielding the seagull from the sun with his hat.

“I’m sure.” Chenle answered truthfully.

After Jaemin and Jeno had found them, Chenle started to tell the story, seated on the sand and cradling the bird in his arms whilst Jisung held his head to his chest, wiping the stray tears that slipped from Chenle’s eyes as he retold the story. He saw Jisung’s own eyes glistening with tears, but he knew that Jisung would rather he not comment on it, so he laid his head back on Jisung’s chest.

“He asked me to take him back.” Chenle looked at his friends hopefully once he finished. “Will you help me?”

Chenle decided that the sea and clouds were watching over them when they managed to surreptitiously sneak a boat into the ocean without the teachers noticing. Renjun and Jeno have taken it upon themselves to guide the boat whenever they felt they were going astray, but none of them knew where their destination was.

“How will we know where?” Jisung asked from next to Chenle. He’s been looking at Chenle differently ever since he told the story; something akin to fascination swirled along the other emotions he usually looked at Chenle with.

“We’ll just know.” Chenle replied. As if to agree with him, the water tipped the boat in a small nudge whilst a strong gust of wind slapped all of their arms.

Jaemin laughed as he looked back at the beach, letting the water and air play with them. He was the one that Chenle’s retelling touched the most. His tears flowed as freely as Chenle’s did when Mark was the one telling the story. He sighed, almost bitterly. “It’s cruel, what happened to them.”

Chenle hummed in agreement as he looked down at Mark. Cold and lifeless, only wanting to go back to his love. In turn, he can imagine Donghyuck at the bottom of the sea, a wounded shoulder and an even more wounded back where his shark’s fin should be. He was waiting for Mark the same way Mark wanted to go to him.

A warm hand brushed over Chenle’s as Jisung takes the sunhat into his hold, effectively breaking Chenle out of his thoughts.

“Let me hold it for you.” Jisung offered as he used his other hand to lower Chenle’s raised one to his lap. Chenle held on before Jisung could let go, vaguely similar to how Mark held on to Donghyuck and how Donghyuck held on to Mark.

“Thank you.” Chenle said.

But they weren’t similar. There was no life-threatening danger that would keep them apart. There was no need to run away to where the sea met the sky just so they can see each other. There was no premature end. And Chenle wished with all of his heart that Mark and Donghyuck would have a next life where all of their suffering would be left at the bottom of the ocean.

The wind whispered in Chenle’s ear, bringing him back to where he was seated with a still Mark on his lap with Jisung next to him and holding the sunhat to Mark. Renjun and Jeno were looking forward and Jaemin was looking back. He locked eyes with Jisung, seemingly talking with just their eyes despite not conversing at all. They were simply looking at each other until the water nudged the boat forward for a second time.

Chenle looked around and saw a boulder in the middle of the water. It was a good few feet away from them, not more than a dozen. Chenle’s lips tugged into a small smile at the sight of the rock that somehow looked identical to the boulder he found Mark at.

Chenle allowed himself a moment to marvel at the only witness to the heartbreaking tragedy of Mark and Donghyuck. Under the morning sun, the boulder stood above the water, the place where the ocean and the sky crossed paths.

The rock didn’t look as if it held a travesty, but Chenle knew of the broken hearts and the bloodshed it had witnessed. He knew of the deep, raw, unique love that the boulder was home to.

Chenle remembered the carving on the boulder at the beach and wondered if this boulder had the same one. If it did, Chenle would have to look under the stray seagull feathers that were left on the boulder. There were barely ten feathers, and if Chenle didn’t know any better, he’s think that an angel come and went.

Donghyuck was right to think Mark an angel.

“We’re here.” Chenle said as they reached the rock. His eyes turned glassy at the idea of the water the boat was currently above of strained with blood that was in no way as red as the love that ran between the two.

“Hey.” Jisung whispered as he squeezed Chenle’s hand tightly before letting go. “You got this.”

Chenle glanced at all of his friends before nodding at Jisung. He took a deep breath as he looked down at his lap. He cradled Mark in his hands as he turned to face the water.

“It’s time to go back to your sea nymph, angel.” Chenle said as a farewell before gently dropping Mark under the water.

Jisung and Chenle watched the seagull sink into the sea; Renjun, Jaemin, and Jeno don’t move from their side of the boat in fear of tipping it over completely. Jisung laid his hands on Chenle’s again, thumbs brushing his knuckles in a way that he knew comforted his friend.

“It’s a beautiful story.” Renjun said as Chenle and Jisung kept their eyes on the water.

“It is.” Chenle agreed airily. The outline of Mark has disappeared deep into the ocean. He never would have guessed that he’d be the pile of feathers at the bottom of the ocean, but Mark was willing to be anything if it meant he stayed by Donghyuck’s side.

Jaemin tilted his head upwards towards the morning sun. “It’s almost time for brunch.”

“We should go before anyone notices we’re gone.” Jeno said.

Jisung pats Chenle’s shoulder with the hand that wasn’t around the latter’s. Chenle looks at Jisung and nods curtly at the other’s questioning expression. The two boys face their group as their companions start to direct the boat back to the beach.

Under the water, deep into the sea bed, Mark lands next to Donghyuck, barely a foot apart. Their fingers overlap, lacing together in a long-before established greeting between them.

“Why would you do that?”

“You still haven’t reached your dream of flying to the sun.”

“There’s no flying in my life without you. You’re the only sun in my life.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!! i thought it was going to be longer than 13k words but i didn't want to force it :P tell me your thoughts on it down in the comments or on my [curious cat](https://curiouscat.qa/water_lili_es) or visit my [twitter](https://twitter.com/markeu_tuan93) for more stories!! *^^* you can also find me on [wattpad](https://www.wattpad.com/user/GirlDreamcatcher1123) and [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGfueuIgLVf0o1FNOllA18g)!!!
> 
> this was loosely based off of this [manga](https://mangakakalot.com/chapter/the_specific_heat_capacity_of_love/chapter_0)!! go read it if you'd like *^^* thank you for reading!!!


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